I know I've done a good job when I get repeat business from my authors, and so I was thrilled that Victoria Nelson hired me again to custom design the cover for her screenplay "Jack Marlin, Private Eye: The Case of the Barbary Blackbird".

'Jack Marlin' is a tribute to the work of Raymond Chandler and is subtitled as being a Modern-day penny dreadful. It sounds like a lot of fun and I'm intrigued by the whole concept.

Victoria (who has a Masters in Literature!!!) was kind enough to send me several copies of 'Jack Marlin' along with the play "L is for Sayers" which I also did the custom cover design for earlier this year. Thank You, Victoria!

And here's what Victoria said about working with me:

"Working with Kura
is an absolute pleasure! She is multi-talented, scholarly, personable and
possesses a lovely sense of humor. She is also astute and conscientious about
her work and professional relationships with clients.

The first time I worked
with Kura, she assisted me with a redesign of
my book cover for a stage play celebrating the life and writing of Dorothy L.
Sayers. Her approach to the project and the suggestions she made not only
demonstrated a sensitivity to my vision but also mastery of her craft.

I have
just completed my second project with Kura
which was to create a front and back book cover for an animation film script.
Again, I was delighted at her versatility and the ease with which she was able
to accommodate my vision and make wonderful contributions to the work. I look
forward to working with Kura again and I give
her my very highest recommendation. "

- Victoria Nelson (USA)

Scriptwriter
of “Jack Marlin, Private Eye: The Case of the Barbary
Blackbird”

"Working
with Kura was brilliant – I had a complicated novel that had completely
stymied me when it came to designing a cover myself, but after bouncing
a few emails back and forth with Kura it was clear that she really got
it.

A couple of days later and she had sent me a set of awesome
concepts, all of which were a different take on the novel, and all of
which would have been perfect.

The final version is going to kick arse,
and the author is over the moon about it (when I showed him the
concepts, his response was "TERRIFIC!!!!!!"). The books stores aren't
going to know what hit them..."

I thought I'd share a few posters I designed for my local Steampunk Group. The posters are to promote their steampunk events which will be part of the Earnslaw centenary celebrations during the Dunedin Steam Festival Labour weekend 18-22 October 2012.

I created these using authentic 19th century advertising posters (public domain of course)

But as it's not out for release just yet, it gets the old 'paper bag' treatment. Also known as: I know something you don't know...

I had the pleasure of working with Pat last year on a Sci-fi design, so I was very pleased me had confidence in getting me to do this historical project. You can read a bit more about Pat's novel, and what he had to say about working with me over on his blog HERE